An oil painting by Patrick Collins, unseen in public for almost 40 years, could make a record price for the artist when it is auctioned in Dublin later this month.
The picture, Liffey Quaysides, will be offered at the James Adam salerooms in Dublin on March 28th and is expected to fetch £40,000-£50,000. The previous highest price achieved at auction for a Collins painting was £40,000, paid for his Liffey Quays which sold in the same rooms almost three years ago.
Born in Sligo in 1911, Patrick Collins died in March 1994. Painted in 1957, Liffey Quay- sides is significant for several reasons, not least because in 1958 it won Collins the Guggenheim National Section Award for Ireland. Writing of the work in 1959, an Irish Times critic declared: "This is not a Dublin as it is now; is not even Dublin as it ever was at any particular point in time; it makes its appeal in a sudden flash of recollection, like something remembered from a great distance."
Although shown in an exhibition of Irish painters held in New York in 1963, when the picture was purchased it went to England and came back here only a few years ago. Liffey Quaysides possesses much-remarked Joycean associations and also connections with the later work of Jack B. Yeats. The latter's palette was certainly much brighter than that of Collins who, in this work, demonstrated his abiding fondness for blue and grey tones.
The picture was one of three large oils - the others being Moorland Waters and Spring Morning - produced by the artist in 1957/58 and described by art critic Frances Ruane in a 1982 catalogue as "an important landmark in his career".
It seems likely, however, that this important landmark will enter a private collection and once again not be seen in public. A spokeswoman for the Irish Museum of Modern Art said that while that institution "would be interested in the work, we have an established policy of not buying art at auction, so we won't be bidding".
The National Gallery of Ireland is "awaiting a catalogue for the auction". "It's too early to speculate," a spokesman said.
A staff member at the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art said that while "it would be wonderful to have an example of Collins's Dublin pictures because there isn't one in our collection, unfortunately our acquisition budget won't be able to accommodate the purchase this year."